Rail joint bar



1961 J. A. GREER 3,003,701

RAIL JOINT BAR Filed Aug. 10. 1959 %or 501.1 HOLES INVENTOR JAMES A. GREER United States Patent- 3,003,701 RAIL JOINT BAR James A. Greer, Kensington, Calif., assignor to Poor & Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 10, 1959, Ser. No. 832,841 1 Claim. (Cl. 238-243) This invention relates to rail joints, and more particularly to a bar having combined structural features acting conjunctively to provide self-adjusting bearing contacts between the head'web fillet of the rail and the underside of the bottom flange of the bar where it engages the upper face of the base flange of the rail.

Necessarily rail joint bars are applied in their functional position with reference to the fishing space of rail, and therefore it is desirable to provide an initial flat hearing area at the bottom inner portion of the bar web coincident with the angnlarly disposed upper surface of the rail flange, while the curved or arcuate inner face of the head of the bar engages the correspondingly curved face of the head-web fillet of the rail. As the head and foot of the bar wear under traffic conditions, the joint bolts must be tightened. In the bolt tightening or increased bolt tension, the arcuate head of the bar functions as a pivot in relation to the head-web fillet of the rail, the bottom rail flange engaging portion of the bar will move inwardly, that is, advance towards the base web fillet of the rail. As supplemental wear occurs, the bottom face of the bar is formed so that outwardly from the initial rail flange engaging area, the base of the bar is inclined upwardly with relation to the upper rail flange surface to provide space permitting inward rotary action of the base toward the base web fillet resulting from applied bolt tension, whereby, the initial flange engaging area of the bar is consecutively augmented and the hearing on the upper surface of the rail flange is proportionately increased during its functional life.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a rail joint bar having structurally and functionally related formations at the head and foot of the bar which in response to applied requisite bolt tension affects simultaneous engagement with head-web fillet and flange of the rail to assure proper application. That is to say, it is an object of the present invention to provide a rail joint bar having a head portion formed with an arcuate load bearing surface only in contact with the head-web fillet of the rail, and whose bottom face of the foot portion of the bar is provided with a limited initial rail flange engaging surface coplanar with upper flange surface disposed inwardly from the vertical center line of the web of the bar, and that portion of the bottom face of the bar extending outwardly from the center line of the web of the bar diverging upwardly in slightly less angular relation to the center line of the web of the bar than that of the initial bearing surface or in displanar relation to rail flange, whereby said outwardly disposed base portion is intended to successively come into extended hearing engagement with the upper surface of the rail flange, or accompanying adjustment for wear through tightening of the bolts.

With the above and other objects in view which will appear as the nature of the invention is better understood, the invention consists in the novel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated and claimed.

A preferred and practical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which the FIGURE is a diagrammatic illustration of a joint bar inaccordance with the present invention as applied to a rail,

The rail designated generally as R is provided with a head H having an arcuate head-web fillet HW: a web W "ice and a base B having a flat bottom face 1 and an upper face 2 sloping downwardly and outwardly at an angle to the bottom face 1 extending from the point 3 which is the terminus of the arc of the base web fillet BW of the rail, to a point 4 tangent to the fillet at the upper outer edge of the rail flange.

The joint bar designated generally as A is provided with a head portion 5 having a load bearing surface 5 in the form of a circular arc struck on a radius 5 having the center C which is the same as the circular arc of the head-web fillet HW.

As shown, the full line radius 5 passes through the mid-point of the are 5*, and the dotted lines 5 show the limits of the angular movement of said radius 5 which define the length of the are 5 as Well as a sector including the mating surfaces of the head of the bar and the rail fillet. The full line position of the radius 5 passes through the mid-point of the are 5 and is, therefore, perpendicular thereto. These mating surfaces provide an extended area of pivotal contact between the rail and the bar, and, also permit clockwise rotation of the base with respect to the bar head to insure proper support for the rails at the point of concentration of forces of greatest magnitude between the rail and the bar.

The head 5 of the bar is connected by a web 6 to a base flange 7 provided on its inner face with-a pairof angularly disposed initial and supplementary bearing faces 8 and 9. These faces'converge at the point 10 lying in the vertical center line 11 of the web of the bar.

Thus, the angularly disposed bearing faces 8 and 9 intersect at the point 10 which is the predetermined point of convergence of said faces and in the plane of the vertical axis 11 of the bar web. The leading or innermost limit of the initial bearing face 8 is defined by the aforesaid point 3 which represents the junction of the face 8 with the lower terminus of the radius of the base web fillet BW of the rail. The innermost point of the supple mental face 9 begins at 16 and terminates in the toe of the bar beyond the point 4 of the rail base flange.

As will be seen from the drawing, initial face 8 which provides flat preliminary hearing engagement between the bar and the upper face of the rail base is formed on the same angle and in coplanar relation with the upper face of the base flange of the rail. Thus, at the time of initial installation of the bar on the rail, there is an area of common bearing between the foot of the bar and the base flange of the rail, designated by the bracketed area and identified by the reference 310, which serves properly to locate the arcuate surface 5 of the radial head in relation to the head-web fillet HW of the rail.

The mid point of face 8 is intersected by line x--x at an angle of degrees and the upper portion of said line intersects the center line CL of the bolt holes between the vertical center line 11 of the web 6 and the outer bolting face thereof. The junction of x-x with the center line of the bolt holes at y is also intersected by the line z-z Whose upper portion intersects the mating arcs of HW and 5*. These lines x-x and z-z indicate the reactive forces above and below the center line of the bolt holes due to applied bolt tension and demonstrate the axial relation to the pivotal head and intended inward rotation of bar base incident to such applied bolt tension. That is to say, the bar is designed with physical properties to insure distribution of bolt pressure in the direction of reactive force lines x-x to the base and 2-2 to the head due to engagement of the circular arcuate surfaces HW and 5 For example, tensioning the bolts imposes a horizontal force, compressive in nature on the bar at the point y and this force moving inwardly and downwardly in the direction of line .x-x and also upwardly and inwardly along the line zz causes the bar head to pivot in the rail fillet while its base portion ro- 3 tates clockwise firmly causing the initial surface 8 to engage the zone 310 on the inclined top surface of the base flange of the rail.

The force transmitted along the line xx is perpendicular to the surface of the bar to insure a sliding frictional wedging fit between the surfaces 8 and 310 as the bar is put under bolt tensioning. On the other hand, because the head of the bar pivotally' engages the rail fillet, the force line 2-2 passes through the mid-point of the circular arcuate surface 5. thereby insuring pivotal movement of the bar head about the common, center C of the radii of the bar head and the head-web fillet.

-As will also be apparent from the drawing, the face 9' at the underside of the foot of the bar'is formed to provide space to permit the base portion of the bar to move inwardly under progressive bolt tightening.

The effect of the structural arrangement described is to provide a construction which may be easily rolled to close tolerances to locate the angularly related bearing faces 8 and 9 in relation to the arcuate load bearing; surface '5 of the bar head to assure successive cooperation with the inclined face of the upper face of the rail base flange. And, at the same time, as the face 8 wears and the foot portion of the bar moves inwardly, the supplemental face 9 progressively comes into play to compensate for the pivotal movement of the load bearing surface 5 at the head of the bar as it shifts in relation to the headweb-fillet HW of the rail but maintains the highly important concentricity of the circular arcs of the bar head and the head-web fillet of the rail.

I claim: A joint bar for connecting ends of rails having arcuate head-web fillets, said bar including, a bar head, a web having bolt holes whose axes lie substantially in the horizontal neutral axis of the bar, and means for distributing bolting force from the area of the bolt holes to. the head and foot of the bar, said means comprising, a load bearing surface on the bar head in the shape of a circular are formed on a radius intersecting the mid-point of the arc and having its center concentric with the radius of the related head-Web fillet, an initial bearing face on the bottom surface of the foot portion of the bar, a supplementary bearing face, also on said. bottom surface of the foot portion of the bar and disposed at an angle of lesser degree relative to the center line of the web than the degree of angular disposition of said initial face, said initial face disposed at right angles to a downwardly directed force transmitting line perpendicular with its midportion and also passing through the center line of the bolt holes at a point of intersection between said center line of the web and the outer face thereof, and an upwardly directed bolt force transmitting line passing through both said point of intersection and also the midpoint of the circular arc of the bar as defined by the radius, whereby, pressure at the line of the bolt holes will cause the bar to pivot about its head in the fillet of the rail as the initial bearing face of the foot moves clockwise to bring the supplementary bearing face into play as wear occurs.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

